Open Polytechnic Chief Executive to step down in 2019 Open Polytechnic Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Seelig, will be stepping down from the role in the middle of next year after more than 10 years of leadership at the specialist open and distance learning …

Open Polytechnic Chief Executive to step down in 2019
Open Polytechnic Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Seelig, will be stepping down from the role in the middle of next year after more than 10 years of leadership at the specialist open and distance learning organisation.

Council Chair for Open Polytechnic, Murray Bain, said: “Under Caroline’s leadership the Open Polytechnic has become New Zealand’s leading distance learning tertiary education organisation with more than 30,000 students a year studying across a wide range of courses. In addition to this she has led a strong, forward looking investment programme which has seen Open Polytechnic transformed into a modern, digitally based, organisation able to meet the needs of a full range of learners and employers in the modern world.”

“The Council is extremely grateful to Caroline for her guidance and leadership over these last 10 years and for the fact that she will still be leading the organisation over this next period as the Government’s review of the polytechnic sector plays out,” he said.

Announcing the decision to staff today, Dr Seelig said she was proud of what has been achieved at the Open Polytechnic over the last decade. “We are one of the top performing organisations in the ITP sector, with high enrolment demand, consistent financial surpluses, and educational performance levels which are amongst the best in the world for open and distance learning organisations.”

Under Dr Seelig’s leadership Open Polytechnic has achieved its digital transformation, and developed the iQualify online learning platform which is also being sold commercially and is increasingly being used by a wide range of public and private sector organisations.
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